


starlight

by chidorinnn



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 19:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3086579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chidorinnn/pseuds/chidorinnn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura despairs at having been unable to protect Sasuke. Tsunade is left to pick up the pieces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	starlight

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during the time skip. Sakura is roughly fourteen.

You couldn’t really see the stars that well from Konoha — too much artificial light. 

But in the Forest of Death, where greenery stretched for miles and artificial light was a luxury that its inhabitants couldn’t afford, a starry sky was like a whole different world.

On the windowsill of the Hokage’s office, Sakura stared up at the stars and couldn’t help but picture a different sky — the one she’d seen in the Chuunin Exams, back when Sasuke was too delirious with pain and fever to be aware of anything else, back when Naruto was so deeply unconscious that he refused to stir no matter how many times Sakura poked and prodded him. Her eyelids felt heavy now, like they did back then, and she found her thoughts wandering in different, nonsensical directions like they did when she was ready to fall asleep.

"You know, you should sleep if you’re that tired." Tsunade’s voice sounded like it had come from far away, like it wasn’t real.

"Can’t," came Sakura’s clipped reply. Because she needed to watch out for enemy ninja, needed to protect Sasuke when he was too weak and ill to protect himself, needed to wake up Naruto because there was no way she was strong enough to defend both of them on her own — and pain pulsated at her temples, like it did back then, and her hair was too long and heavy, like it was back then…

"You know," Tsunade’s voice came again, cutting through the haze in her mind, "chakra exhaustion is very much a thing. And you have it right now." Sakura didn’t respond, choosing instead to hug her knees closer to her chest. Tsunade snapped her fingers in front of Sakura’s face several times. "Oi… are you listening?" 

As if Tsunade had flipped some sort of switch, Sakura saw the world jolt back into startling clarity. Her eyes burned, and she was too tired to hold back her tears — because there was no one to protect now. Sasuke and Naruto were both gone, and there was no one left to depend on her. 

"H-Hey…" Tsunade stammered as Sakura began to choke on sobs. "What’s gotten into you? You did well today! You mastered that technique!"

But Sakura couldn’t put her thoughts into words. If she’d been this strong back then, she could have saved Sasuke and Naruto, gotten them far, far away from Orochimaru so that Sasuke would never have gotten that infernal cursed seal. If she’d been this strong back then, she could have been there when Sasuke had faced off against his brother, and maybe she could have saved him from the despair that drove him out of the village. If she’d been this strong back then…

"It’s not your fault," Tsunade said flatly.

"Mm?" was all Sakura could say in response.

"Sasuke needs to find his own peace," Tsunade elaborated. "You can’t give it to him.  _No one_  can just give it to him… not after what he’s suffered. He needs to find it on his own. Yeah, it’s awful for the ones who care about him — I mean, god knows the sort of crap Shizune had to go through because of  _me_ — but it is what it is, and you can’t do much about it.”

Tsunade exhaled slowly and sat next to Sakura on the windowsill, placing her hand gently over Sakura’s. “And… maybe  _this_  is the only way he can find that peace. Maybe it’s not in the village at all, but out there, somewhere, in something we can’t even imagine. But once he finds that peace…” Tsunade smiled at Sakura, her face illuminated by starlight, “… you can bet that he’ll come back. We all do.”

As Sakura stared up at the sky again, the stars blurring before her in a watery haze, she wondered if Sasuke was seeing the same thing. “Do you think Orochimaru can help him find that peace?” she whispered.

"I don’t know…" Tsunade said slowly. "It’s not impossible — he helped me find mine, after all, more than even Jiraiya. But I think it’ll be the other way around… I think  _Sasuke_  will be the one to help  _him_  in the end.” Something shifted in Tsunade’s expression, and the Hokage suddenly clenched her fists. “And when that happens, I’m going to kill him, then use my powers as a medic to bring him back to life, and then kill him again.”

Sakura couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re a  _terrible_  person.”

Tsunade trapped her in a choke-hold and pat her head. “I thought you wanted to learn from the  _best_.”

And as Sakura continued to laugh, she could feel her worries and anxieties melting away, evaporating into stardust. 


End file.
